Editor Reviews:

Description:
The Imperial Fighting Troupe is called again to defend Tokyo against the demons. However, this time, the Douglas-Stewart Company is selling a new type of Fighting mecha that will revolutionize Japan's defense. A superior fighting machine that will make the Flower Division obsolete. However, the girls suspect something when members of their team begin to vanish. But what can they do when their division has been placed on indefinite stand-by status? Comes with Reversible DVD Cover. Features English 5.1 Dolby Digital & Dolby Surround, Japanese 5.1 Dolby Digital & Dolby Surround, and Anamorphic Video

Amazon.com:
The feature adaptation of this long-running continuity has been pumped up with redesigned characters, computer-generated mecha, jazzy special effects, and flashy tracking shots. Unfortunately, all this visual razzle-dazzle doesn't add up to much. Director Mitsurou Hongo doesn't bother to introduce the characters or the set-up, and Ojhi Hiroi's story has a jingoistic edge. Brent Furlong, the head of the American Douglas-Stewart company, plots to replace the Operetta Troupe Flower Division with his unmanned mecha Japhkiels. His real objective is the conquest of Japan, but he underestimates the young women of the Flower Division, who defeat his mecha and demons. The flat, drawn characters and the 3-D CG mechanical devices look like they're taken from two different films, and the leaden pacing makes the film feel much longer than 85 minutes. The TV series is less flashy but more entertaining. (Unrated: suitable for ages 12 and older: considerable violence) --Charles Solomon

Rating : - Stay far away if you have no knowledge of this series
If you never seen the Sakura Wars TV series at the very least. Then this movie will seem like nothing more than an incoherent mess. All of the character development, and the entire story lies in everything before this. This is just a movie to add on.

Now since I got that out of the way. I found this movie to be disappointing. The characters have new voice actors and this is terrible for Marya for the simple fact her russian accent is gone. And some of the characters original personalities did not carry over. Names are mispronounced as well. This is very unacceptable to me. Because in the series the characters were very unique. And Sakura especially had evolved alot towards the end. She seems to be right back at that clumsy stage. The dialogue in this one is pretty lame as well. This is definitly were you can tell the original personalities didn't carry over for everyone, especially Marya. The dubbing is weird for the english version, especially in the begining.

The only thing that saved this from 2 stars for me was 2 things. The animation and the fight scenes. Like I always say, animation is non existent if the anime fails in numerous areas. But this is one time the animation cannot be overlooked no matter how bad this movie could have been. They really put alot into the animation. The fight scenes were also well done. The plot was somewhat slow and boring for me. To include there were several holes in a few scenes. And midway through the movie, a part of the ending was incredibly predictable.

If your a Sakura Wars collector then this should fit well in your collection. If you weren't too crazy about the series or the OVA then I say skip it. Cause it isn't that much different. Skip this movie altogether if you never ever seen Sakura Wars TV series.